It isn't getting better: the transformative potentials of hopelessness

dc.contributor.authorSmith, Kimberly
dc.contributor.supervisorGarlick, Steve
dc.date.accessioned2018-01-02T15:48:22Z
dc.date.available2018-01-02T15:48:22Z
dc.date.copyright2017en_US
dc.date.issued2018-01-02
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of Sociology
dc.degree.levelMaster of Arts M.A.en_US
dc.description.abstractThis thesis approaches hopelessness through the work of Deleuze and Guattari, situating their thought in relation to Baruch Spinoza and Brian Massumi. Drawing on Massumi’s theorizing of fear, and Spinoza’s theorizing the link between hope and fear, I argue that hope keeps bodies and politics bound to a future that comes to organize the present. From this perspective, I argue that hopelessness can become an important element of not only undoing the ways that future forces come to organize the present, but can open immanent ways of participating in the organization of emergent forces. The thesis also clarifies the differences between affect and emotion, and the body and the subject. This supports an understanding of politics as the undoing and warding off of hope through attending to hopelessness, and an increase in bodies’ capacities to experiment and participate in the organization of their own desires and situations.en_US
dc.description.scholarlevelGraduateen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1828/8926
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.rightsAvailable to the World Wide Weben_US
dc.subjectaffect theoryen_US
dc.subjectDeleuze & Guattarien_US
dc.subjecthopelessnessen_US
dc.titleIt isn't getting better: the transformative potentials of hopelessnessen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Smith_Kimberly_MA_2017.pdf
Size:
474.49 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.71 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description: